


slowly but surely

by haetae



Series: in the darkest nights, i will be there [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Au Ra Warrior of Light, Love Confessions, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, anyway catch me writing self-indulgent fic at 3am, spoilers for lv 50 drk quest, trans male OC, vague hint at fray/sid but can also be interpreted as Close Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 10:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13611711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haetae/pseuds/haetae
Summary: when one cannot find rest, sometimes it's easier to stay up and have an honest heart-to-heart on watch duty.--aka, the most self-indulgent thing i've written since my fire emblem days. spoilers for lv50 drk quest. also mild warning for adorable interruptions.





	slowly but surely

He’d been keeping watch of their campsite, located just a little ways outside of the dreaded Moghome, when he hears Masaki toss and turn noisily.

Sidurgu glances over his shoulder at the disturbed au ra and finds him still asleep. He turns his eyes towards Rielle—she hasn’t woken up. But she will at the rate Masaki is groaning in his sleep. With another scan of the area and seeing no changes, he pushes himself from his seat and makes his way towards the slumbering au ra. Just as he kneels beside him, he freezes at hearing words come out of Masaki’s mouth.

“… _Uuchlaarai_ …”

Provided, they aren’t words that he can actually understand but for some reason the pained expression on Masaki’s face makes his chest twist uncomfortably.

“Hey,” he urges quietly, nudging the au ra’s shoulder. “Masaki. Wake up.”

Masaki’s eyes snap open and he gasps loudly—his mismatched eyes are wild with panic for a brief second until they meet Sid’s and he instantly relaxes.

The other au ra doesn’t say anything, as usual, but Sidurgu can see the guilt in Masaki’s eyes and shakes his head. They all have their own monsters to deal with. Silence stretches awkwardly between them as they stare at each other, unsure what to say or do.

“Would you like to keep watch with me?” Sid murmurs, finally breaking the tension in the air.

Masaki blinks slowly and nods. He throws off the threadbare blanket, exposing his covered chest and bare, scarred skin. Sidurgu quickly looks away with a faked cough. A few moments pass and then there’s a tap against the pauldron of his armor. He turns to see Masaki with a shirt on, much to his relief. Masaki tilts his head curiously and Sidurgu shakes his head again before he quietly returns to his post with the other au ra following at his heels.

Both men sit beside each other. Sidurgu notices there’s not much space separating them—and that he doesn’t mind. Masaki seems to emanate a warmth not unlike of a campfire’s. He’ll use that as an excuse to keep close to him.

“… Mongke.”

Sidurgu blinks rapidly and slowly turns to Masaki in astonishment. He’s rarely heard a word out of the man since he met him—what’s prompted his talkativeness all of a sudden?

Masaki seems to sense his surprise because when he meets Sid’s eyes, there’s a faint smirk playing at his lips.

“Call me Mongke,” he says in a soft voice that reminds Sidurgu of crackling, dying embers.

Sid can only nod dumbly in reply.

“… Is… is that your real name?” He asks, still quietly reeling from the sheer shock of hearing Masa—er, Mongke speak. “Why didn’t you…?”

“Was too late, then.” Mongke replies, turning his eyes away to glance up at the night sky. “Everyone call me that now so.” He gives a helpless shrug.

Sidurgu furrows his brow. “… Why are you telling me to call you by your real name?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Mongke meets his eyes again and Sidurgu finds himself taken by how pretty they look in the moonlight.

“I trust you.”

There’s so much emotion in those eyes of his. He… isn’t sure how to handle such honesty. Even Rielle usually hides her pain to the point that the moogles figured her out faster than Sid did. His adam’s apple bobs nervously. Mongke just calmly stares at him, those eyes captivating him more than they should.

Finally, he looks away, sparing Sidurgu’s heart from collapsing in itself, to gaze up at the night sky again.

Sid keeps his eyes on the terrain before them, slightly shaken for some reason. He swallows thickly as his hands clench uselessly at his knees. Gods, why is he acting like some choir boy stuttering around some fair maiden? It’s just Mongke. (The same man that Fray partially possessed in their dying throes. The same man who helped and protected him and Rielle from the Temple Knights.) By all rights, he should resent Mongke for taking Fray away from him. For turning their lives upside down with all of his heroics. For keeping his name (of all things) a secret.

Except that he feels stupidly giddy over finding out his real name.

Sidurgu makes an annoyed tch noise that earns him an amused chuckle from Mongke.

He feels his cheeks color.

“Why don’t you two kiss each other already!”

Both jump and turn too suddenly and end up knocking their horns. The shock is enough to send them clutching at their own sensitive horns in pain as Rielle titters behind them. Sidurgu is the first to recover and sends a glare at the mischievous girl as she gives him her most innocuous look. Mongke just groans, too preoccupied with nursing his hurts.

“Rielle! When did you wake up?!” Sid hisses.

“When _Mongke_ woke me up with his tossing and turning.” Rielle shoots back as she narrows her eyes at the culprit in question.

Mongke recovers enough at that point to return her pointed look with a sheepish grin.

Sidurgu opens and closes his mouth before he fixates on a particular detail.

“Wait, how do you know of Masaki’s real name?”

“He told me after that trip to the Observatorium.” Rielle says rather smugly. Sidurgu looks back at Mongke, still in shock, and Mongke helplessly shrugs again.

“And it took you _that_ long to trust me with your real name?” he accuses the other au ra, feeling somewhat offended and hurt. Mongke wilts a little.

“ _Sid_ ,” Rielle whines from her bedroll and stops him with a well-placed glare. “He was going to tell you sooner but _someone_ —” she pauses to glare at Mongke too, “—got cold feet.”

Sidurgu looks back at Mongke, who seems to shrink away at all the attention aimed at him. He rolls his eyes and turns to Rielle.

“Go to sleep.” The way he speaks leaves no room for argument but Rielle, stubborn as she is, makes room for argument anyway.

“But—”

“ _Sleep._ ”

This time she listens very reluctantly and grumbles in mild protest as she curls up in her bedroll. She leers meanly at Sidurgu one last time before her face is obscured by blankets and all. Both men sigh in relief almost simultaneously before turning to one another. Mongke can’t quite meet Sid’s eyes as he rubs the back of his head, his gaze trained on the ground.

He isn’t sure what prompts him to do it. But Sidurgu swallows back his hesitation. He reaches out, gently cups Mongke’s chin, and nudges him to look up.

Wide, mismatched eyes stare back at him. It feels like the air has been sucked out of his lungs.

“I love you.”

He isn’t sure who blurts it out until he sees Mongke’s mouth wobble in hesitation.

“I… ah…” Mongke shuts his mouth and tries to shift away but Sid keeps him there with his fingers curled under the other’s chin.

“Can… can you say that again?” Sidurgu asks (almost _pleads_ ) softly.

Mongke blinks rapidly. Then he graces Sid with the most beautiful sentence he’s ever heard in a whisper, a secret shared between them.

“I love you.”

Scarred palms reach up and cup his cheeks as Mongke leans in a little closer and bumps noses with him. There’s too much caution in his touches, in his hopeful eyes.

So Sidurgu closes the distance between them and presses his lips against Mongke’s.

It is the most gentle kiss he’s ever had. Mongke is a bit unskilled but so is he—for he never experienced this kind of tenderness, not since his family died. Their horns sometimes clack against each other, coaxing a few giggles from Mongke (he feels fit to run through all of Coerthas after hearing a laugh like that). It takes a few more clumsy tries before they finally find the right angle that’s comfortable for the both of them.

Kissing him feels warm and soft, if a bit awkward. He finds the gentleness of the kiss at odds with the fierce passion leaking through Mongke’s hands, in the way he now cradles the back of Sid’s head and drinks him in as if he can never get enough.

His arms wrap around Mongke’s back almost possessively, protectively. He swallows the air from the other’s lungs and exchanges them, breath by breath, for his lips on his own.

But they reluctantly break apart for air. Rather than face the terrible option of pulling away entirely, they rest their foreheads against the other’s as they catch their breaths.

“Me too.” Sidurgu finally says.

Mongke opens his eyes to stare at him incredulously. Sid snorts and presses a slow kiss to his lips before he murmurs against Mongke’s mouth.

“I love you.”

“Well it’s about time you lot kissed!”

They both jerk away again to glare at a certain ward who should be _asleep_.

“ _Rielle!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> minor translation note:
> 
> uuchlaarai - sorry
> 
> other notes:
> 
> mongke went by masaki for the longest time because when he went to sign up for the adventurers guild, momodi modi read his name wrong and it all went downhill from there. also he's not entirely fluent in eorzean. :')


End file.
